Fantastically performed episode with so many twists and turns in the information that it makes your head spin (in a good way, pea soup not included hehe); the only direction never pointed towards is the right one.
Sam, so crippled by fear that other than introducing himself by the leapee's name he doesn't bother to try to play the role; something we don't typically see and was an intense and beautifully written introduction to the mind-merging concept. It was difficult to tell who was more afraid the leapee or Sam of having the leapee's memory.
iMonrey said:
It should have been obvious to Sam, too...
Wrong, the reason being in the paragraph above. He may have felt and somewhat seemed focused but he very much wasn't.
The mind merge had him mentally and in some instances psychically paralyzed with fear. He was very out of it the entire leap. Probably why it was easy for him to be hypnotized, and without realizing it at that.
A gripping and if I may say a somewhat, with the heart, poetically sickening mystery. The character of Crane was just brilliant the way he seemed like the character with the most logic but in fact was a clever oxymoron; a mentally unhinged psychiatrist. Who brought with him the fascinating concept of hypnosis/intentional mind-merge which is a shame isn't explored more in the series.
Perhaps the "little boy" voice was not one of Scott's best performances though you have to be reasonable with your expectations here considering he was a man in his 40's. There's a reason it's usually woman who perform little boy voices in cartoons. My beef with it was that due to the high pitch paired with his use of the words 'grown-ups' and 'mommy' it wasn't a believable performance of a nine/ten year old but rather more like a five year old. It's possible Scott got a little lost in it and went in too deep.
This is actually one of the unusual instances where I would have liked to see a scene or two of the project, they're trouble locking on to him during this occurrence due to the leapee's memories being in full control.
One thing I gotta ask, is it bad that Al's reaction to the body in the beginning actually cracks me up, like every time?! >_<
Now I hope no one minds me revisiting something I've already addressed for a moment. Six years ago I offered my head canon regarding the stand out detail of Al not remembering the simo-leap (
The Leap Back). For once I stand by my original opinion. All long time fans know it's impossible for him not to remember since he does not swiss cheese nor suffer from dementia and we know he does because of a circumstantial blurt in
Permanent Wave ("Is that piece of me still in you!?").
He lied in this situation to discourage Sam from going down that memory lane which could have potentially lead to Donna. In addition he didn't seem interested in discussing the mind merge theory so perhaps he thought he could nip that in the bud.
(It seems I mentioned those years ago that he then brings it up in LHO. Well I no longer remember that occurrence and have come to dismiss the logic in season 5 since at that point all the rules were trashed).
Overall, a well done dark story.
Tidbits:
1.) When Al says "Peter isn't the killer, you are!" if you watch closely his lips seem to be saying "Jack is." Apparently the decision to change that was somewhat last minute since it occurred after the episode was filmed. I can see the more direct reference being more powerful though inaccurate since Sam didn't kill anyone...not until Crane anyway.
2.) Early on Al mentions that Jack Stone's mother died when he was 10. In the final scene where Crane hypnotizes Sam into that little boy, he asks "How old are you?" and Sam answers "9. I'm 9 years old." Oops.
